#Readers’ Workouts: Issue 1

Despite my minimal-meme policy on my blog, I’ve decided to participate in Joy’s Readers’ Workouts meme to help me be held accountable in my workouts. As I said in my update this weekend, I have decided to get healthy again by training for a 100 mile bike ride in September. Part of that choice is just enjoyment in the accomplishment, but part of it is because I want to lose weight. Ever since I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and went on medications, I have been gaining weight. I would like to lose that weight again and be back to the person I was. So I will eat healthier, exercise more, and mostly give up diet soda (not altogether – failed attempts in the past have taught me that giving up soda altogether only leads to relapse later). I’m giving up the diet soda because I’ve heard rumor that it negatively affects one’s metabolism so that people gain weight when drinking it.

In case you’re interested, I have no shame: here’s a graph of my weight over the past few years:

Impressive amount of weight gain, eh? The data starts shortly after I went on medications.

Today I headed over to the fitness center try my first workout (yeah, I made it a whole 15 minutes of cycling – 4 miles) and to ask about a personal trainer. The PT would be a lot of money, which I expected, but I didn’t expect the 6 month contract. I’m going to have to think about whether the PT is worth it. But I might need one. We’ll see. I’ll update you next week!

Post navigation

14 thoughts on “#Readers’ Workouts: Issue 1”

Good luck with your efforts. Fifteen minutes is not a shabby start (I started with 10). I've never had a PT, so I'll be interested in how you go about making the decision. As much as the money, I've always been afraid that a PT would push me right into injury. I trust myself more than anyone else to keep me injury-free, but I'm not very good at telling authoritative people when something isn't right for me.

About ten years ago I was about 280 pounds and very unhealthy. I lost over a hundred pounds. I have mostly kept the weight off but it is always trying to creep up and it is a constant battle. I have exercised regularly for ten years now. I run a lot.

Some folks swear by a personal trainers but I never used one. There are many things that I do that are not optimal. But I do them in order to stay motivated in the run. Thus I think that personal trainer would advise me to change a lot of things. One thing that has kept me motivated is that I listen to audiobooks when working out and running.

I really should join this challenge. I have all kinds of issues creeping up that are surely related to a much more sedentary life than in years past. Training for that bike ride should be fun, and rewarding. I did a much smaller bike ride some number of years ago for the Annual Canoe Regada in Upstate New York. It kicked off in Cooperstown, and ends in Bainbridge…if I remember exactly right. It was fun and with all of those upstate hills, very challenging.

I've decided I shouldn't get a PT right now. I don't want to injure myself using equipment improperly, but I'm also concerned that a PT will take away all chance of having “fun” money for the next 6 months. Am I training for the bike race because I want to torture myself or because I want to have fun while losing weight?

I had a person on LibraryThing telling me she wasn't a fan of personal trainers, and in the same paragraph told me that she broke her vertebrae doing situps wrong several years ago. So there are certainly benefits of a qualified personal trainer.

I believe this race is a full circle around the scenic area. It's beautiful around Lake Itasca. I like the idea of a circle because then I don't have to worry about getting the bike back to my car. 🙂 But I guess the race officials probably have plans for those kinds of things.

Biking 100 miles sounds like a great goal. For me, having runs on the calendar helps keep me motivated. I will also second the audiobooks.

I've never had a physical trainer. I don't want to invest that kind of money either. My gym does have people who will show you how to use the machines if you don't know though. I have a friend who swears by group classes, but I've never done one.

I'm not too interested in classes, because I'm a fan of working at my own pace. I used to be able to bike 100 miles in a day so I'm hoping I can get back to that level by September if I really work at it. I don't see why I shouldn't be able to!